Hundreds and hundreds of people came together on 28 December at the Ateneo del Cerro in
Montevideo, Uruguay for the receiving of the remains of Alberto “Pocho” Mechoso, detained
and disappeared in Argentina in 1976. ---- A long march accompanied Pocho’s family,
friends and comrades – old, young and not-so-old... a whole people, a neighbourhood that
was present to the cry of “Arriba los que luchan!”. ---- First of all, I want to give my
fraternal greetings to all who are with us today. We also want to inform you of a few
things and say a few words. -- Notification from the Argentine Anthropological Team --
They said about my father: “This skeleton is part of the eight that were exhumed
archeologically on October 19, 1989 from graves 73 and 75 of the Municipal Cemetery of San
Fernando (Buenos Aires province), located in the town of Virreyes...

It dealt with exhuming the eight people whose bodies appeared on October 14, 1976 in San
Fernando Channel, recovered by the Coast Guard and buried as N.N. [No Name - translator]
in the respective Municipal Cemetery. Blood samples of Beatriz Elizabeth MECHOSO
CASTELLONESE, Alberto José MECHOSO CASTELLONESE and Beatriz Inés CASTELLONESE TECHERA,
children and spouse respectively of Alberto Cecilio MECHOSO MENDEZ, were received from the
Oriental Republic of Uruguay in the framework of the Latin American Initiative for the
Identification of Desaparecidos (Iniciativa Latinoamericana para la Identificación de
Desaparecidos–ILID). The samples were sent to Bode Technology Group (Bode) and EAAF-LIDMO
laboratories to analyse autosomal DNA markers. They thereby obtained specific genetic
profiles that, on being compared with the profile extracted from a sample of skeleton
VIR-101, allowed us to establish the biological relationship between these people.
Based on the results obtained from the anthropological study and genetic analyses, we
conclude that the skeletal remains studied, known as VIR-101, correspond to Alberto
Cecilio MECHOSO MENDEZ, born November 1, 1936 in the Department of Flores in the Oriental
Republic of Uruguay, C.I. 956.404-7, disappeared on September 26, 1976 as recorded in file
CNDP 7109.”

At this point in my life I have a clear idea of who my father was and what he wanted. My
father grew up in these neighbourhoods, Cerro and La Teja. In them he heard and saw the
labour struggles, social conditions and brutal beating of workers. A modest and sensible
man, he did not remain indifferent to the plight of his people, of those at the bottom. He
soon joined the struggle and shared his ideals of social transformation and the need for
the construction of an order based on other totally different values. He fought for those
ideals until the very end.

He knew what he fought for and the enemy he faced, and was conscious as to what combatting
the enemy of those at the bottom meant. His experience added to that of the unveiled face
of capitalism that, through all its anti-people hatred in those years of brutal cruelty,
covered the whole of society. There he was, like so many, confronted with his daily
struggle and unwavering conviction against the beast that had dropped into the arena. And
he knew that beast intimately. He was brutally tortured. He felt how they tortured other
comrades and how they raped women; all of which amply confirmed what the soul of the enemy
was. He escaped from one of those barracks where the beasts butchered those who struggled
with impunity. He escaped only to request a battle station in his organisation. The
struggle to change this heinous system remained for him the central task. He said in his
letter, “What other path is there? Given all this, how is life worth living? ... There is
only one path, there is only one way to live without shame: fighting. By helping rebellion
spread everywhere...”.

In this “everywhere” his anti-imperialism and people’s self-determination was present. Of
course; no troops to Congo or Haiti.

There are customs, a culture, political intentions today that these moments also serve to
turn the page; an individual’s wake, putting an end to a situation.

But no, the pain does not cloud the fact that a fist is visible to anyone who wants to see
it. In this sense we are not watching anything, we are not turning the page nor ending
anything. We are here accompanying a life and not a death. A life of dedication, full of
hope for a better world. These beloved bones are screaming: Everything continues, all the
struggling done, the ideals championed; the aspiration to continue firmly, without
wavering is the only path that leads to true emancipation. This struggle for total change
has as its compass a just, free and solidary society that, today as yesterday, is worth
everything. It only requires adjusting to new historical conditions. As such, this is an
ode to life and to struggle. To a better life in a better society that has nothing to do
with this one.

My nephew Lolo was clear on fundamental things. This has been a long period dressed in
much infamy, much protection of impunity in different ways – at times blatantly and others
with deceitful subtleties. From the so-called return to democracy today the impunity in
the horror has, one way or another, overall, been sheltered.

But there was a sensitive and tenacious perseverance on the part of the people, especially
the constant work of the Families, which we know were not alone, but who tirelessly kept
the torch of reclamation alight. Today, neither the liars nor those who were afraid to
believe can deny the horrific recent past.

We care to know the whole truth, that people know what happened and to raise awareness of
what the system has in its bowels. There are a few torturers and murderers in prison but
this is just a hint of the truth. How much, how much to whitewash just a little? Enough
cynicism and politicking. What existed and will continue to exist is systemic terrorism;
the state which, without a doubt, played its macabre role that has been articulated
throughout the dominant power structure – the capitalist system.

This state terrorism mentioned is part of a general politics of the system. Politics that
operate differently according to stages and social contexts. As part of this murderous
cruelty that we mention it is clearly implicit that it carried out a process to make way
for a model: neoliberalism. That which the people have suffer and continue to do so. A
model that is and continues to be more for the rich and powerful and less, until the
terrible misery of the world of those at the bottom. So, if we consider in its proper
perspective the macabre dimension of the situation experienced it leaves no doubt as to
the vast amount of direct responsibility that there is in turn.

Today it is more than clear. It is not something isolated as they said or insinuated
ridiculously. It’s the empire, it’s the Condor Plan. There is a Kissinger at the head,
supporting and coordinating assassinations and, at times, massacres. Yes, the organs of
the empire were present yesterday as they are today, giving courses in torture and death,
targeting combatants and teaching techniques of strong repression and of fear for entire
peoples. For large and small saturation projects.

And they want more of the same. Today there are bloody interventions in distinct places,
some directly as in Iraq and Afghanistan and others through NATO, to which must be added
organised or encouraged destabilisation and chains of places of torture around the world.

The events that occurred here were in that design. For our people this will never end up
paying. We will not forgive nor forget. Here, forgiveness is synonymous with complicity
and resignation, and so the best and most authentic way of remembering our comrades is to
continue the struggle, the ideas for which they fell. To continue without compromise, with
the strength such as the enemy we face demands. There is nothing better than to administer
the system, in the best way possible, for those at the top to keep them happy and to
preserve them.

Yes. They carried out selections, atrocities, torture, rape and vile death for active
opponents. Here they had the beasts that could implement the policies that such a
rapacious and miserable system wanted. Here were the mechanisms of death, capable of any
bestiality possible: willing and trained for it. Here was this deplorable collective
subject; useless, cowardly, capable of unimaginable infamies – the subject produced by a
system within an institution and which has a precise function and place in this structure
of domination based on violence.

This whole institutional set of diverse mechanisms that created and recreated the system
from its origin was directed to form the kind of society where the few, very few, had
everything and the great majority, those at the bottom, had nothing or only what is
essential for survival. Mechanisms that constitute an entire network of violence,
including the legal, cultural, ideological and economic. A sinister mesh ensuring its
reproduction.

But the people were not and did not remain passive and submissive. Often staggering,
equally erupting; a sentiment of justice and freedom feeding their dreams. They will never
kill the hope of the people and the militants. What is coming will not be easy to face,
but the easiest path is almost always the worst in this arena.

Pocho surrendered himself entirely for a cause of true justice, for socialism and freedom,
for a new world. And Pocho is all those who persevere in this dream and struggle. We know
there were many, with different ideological shades, who gave total commitment in pursuit
of what they believed. We can’t mention them all but we can comprehend them in the names
of a few fighters like: León Duarte, Gerardo Gatti, Elena Quinteros, Raúl Sendic, Hugo
Cores, Idilio de León, Nuble Yic, Julio Castro or Santa Romero. In the memory and struggle
of everyday life they will always be present.

Brother and comrade Pocho will always be present in the midst of our struggle and our dreams.